Facebook Unveils ‘Dislike’ aka ‘Feelings’ Button in the form of Emoji

Social networking site Facebook has finally unveiled a “dislike” button — but in a more subtle way. Now users will have six new emoji to express their feelings. Facebook said the new feature will be first roll out as a test in Spain and Ireland. The two countries were selected because they are considered relatively closed groups. And, it is expected that users in Spain would like emoji just as it works for other non-English users. Sources said that once these buttons are rolled out to all Facebook users, there will be no option to turn them off.

Mark Zuckerberg had hinted in September that the company was looking at ways to add value to the ‘Like’ button by creating new symbols so that users don’t have to ‘Like’ a sad news, but instead express their true feelings as in case of sad news. Now, you have them in the form of emoji to represent feelings like “Love”, “Yay”, “Wow”, “Hahaha”, “Angry” and “Sad”.

The demand for a “Dislike” was so much that it has spawned Facebook’s own scams. But, the site felt that a ‘dislike’ could be used for bullying many users and it feared that that will make users feel bad and move away.

Facebook’s adoption of emoji series is really creative as it solves the issue by adding more options rather than just exactly replicating ‘Like’ button. The ‘Like’ button is still there, but the new emoji buttons now sit alongside as additional options.

Just like the ‘Like’ button, these reactions will soon appear on any Facebook post including the news feed on your mobile or desktop. The number of reactions your post received will be visible underneath it and you will now be able to see who has reacted to your post and how.